Tried something new with my jerky (All Done with pics)

crankybuzzard · Oct 26, 2015

So, over the weekend I netted up an eye of round roast and hung it in the smoker. I smoked it at 225 degrees until the IT was 150 degrees. After pulling it out of the pit, I allowed it to cool down a bit, then put it in the freezer, let it firm up, and then sliced into 1/4" pieces for jerky.

After slicing, I put all of it into a 1-gallon ziplock along with my jerky marinade, which includes cure #1.

Why did I do it this way, well it was an experiment within an experiment. See experiment #1 here. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/236840/i-put-charcoal-briquettes-in-my-amazen-smoke-tube

The tiny slabs of meat are now taking a bath in the marinade and will go on the dehydrator tomorrow.

Pics later.

pc farmer · Oct 26, 2015

Watching. Different way of making it

JckDanls 07 · Oct 26, 2015

I'm in...

crankybuzzard · Oct 27, 2015

I've smoked the jerky before AFTER it was sliced and marinaded, but I haven't smoked the whole muscle prior to slicing. The smoke on this one is pretty heavy, so we shall see.

Pics this evening.

4pogo7 · Oct 27, 2015

I'll bite

daveomak · Oct 27, 2015

:popcorn

vibe · Oct 27, 2015

The smoke would just be on the edges of each slice this way, and maybe a few penetrated slices.

Need to know as plan on trying jerky soon and this sounds like it's easier - if it works that is!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

driedstick · Oct 27, 2015

That's different

, can't wait to hear the results

DS

crankybuzzard · Oct 27, 2015

Vibe said:
The smoke would just be on the edges of each slice this way, and maybe a few penetrated slices.

Need to know as plan on trying jerky soon and this sounds like it's easier - if it works that is!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep, only the edges will have the smoke flavor, and I considered that going in, but a lot of the jerky I make doesn't ever see smoke anyway, so no biggie from that standpoint. What I'm curious about is how it will do with the marinade and the drying after being precooked to 150° IT. The outside of the roast was quite dry since I didn't rub, baste, or mop at all.

For this go, I'll be doing it in the dehydrator in the kitchen.

I'll be putting it on the drying racks tonight and see how it goes. Pics of it fresh from the marinade then...

bmaddox · Oct 27, 2015

I am in. Smoking th whole cut is a lot easier than trying to fit all the strips on the racks.

bmaddox · Oct 27, 2015

Will the cure have the same affect on an already cooked piece of meat?

crankybuzzard · Oct 27, 2015

bmaddox said:
Will the cure have the same affect on an already cooked piece of meat?

Dunno, that was one of the questions I had as well.

I'll know in the morning what I've got for sure.

bmaddox said:
I am in. Smoking th whole cut is a lot easier than trying to fit all the strips on the racks.

I still have to fit all the strips on racks at some point in order to dry them in the dehydrator. If I were drying in my pit, I could use my rods and just hang them all.

crankybuzzard · Oct 27, 2015

Well, I have determined one plus to heating the roast to 150 IT before slicing, I tasted a small piece. Not too bad, slight smoke flavor and a decent marinade.

Doubt I'll get the pink look one usually gets with the cure, but I'm more after taste as this point.

Here it is all laid out in the trays. Bottom tray was dusted with fresh cracked black pepper, tray 2 had a slight shake or 2 of smoked salt, and the top tray went in just like it came out of the marinade. Yeah, still experimenting...

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crankybuzzard
Oct 27, 2015

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crankybuzzard
Oct 27, 2015

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crankybuzzard
Oct 27, 2015

More pics and a full review tomorrow when I pull it from the dehydrator.

pc farmer · Oct 27, 2015

Looks good so far

driedstick · Oct 27, 2015

crankybuzzard · Oct 27, 2015

Hmm, not sure what to think now... The bride just smelled the aroma from the dehydrator, she asked if I was cooking hotdogs....

I walked into the kitchen, where the dehydrator is, and it smells like hotdogs.... Could be an interesting sample in the morning.

mike5051 · Oct 27, 2015

I like hot dogs! Just kidding, I want to try jerky one day and enjoy people sharing there smokes on smf. I think your experiment will be fine, thanks for letting us join you.

Mike

floridasteve · Oct 28, 2015

Sounds interesting! One newbe question, though. Why out the roast in a net rather than on a rack? I've seen others do this, but couldn't figure out why.

crankybuzzard · Oct 28, 2015

FloridaSteve said:
Sounds interesting! One newbe question, though. Why out the roast in a net rather than on a rack? I've seen others do this, but couldn't figure out why.

I netted this one because it had a split down the side of the roast and it wanted to sit funny on the rack. So , by putting it in the netting, I kept it more of a uniform shape for cooking. It's not required.

Now, for my use of netting in general, I like the shape and the marks I get with loins and roasts like this when I'm making CB and such.

crankybuzzard · Oct 28, 2015

All done now, and quite a bit has been sampled for scientific purposes. :sausage:

So, my findings:

Smoking the entire roast before hand at 225 degrees, until the IT hit 150 degrees, provided me with a slightly smoked flavor. The smoke taste was hinted at and not real pronounced. My wife loved the flavor. This was based upon the top rack of jerky that didn't get any smoked salt or pepper added prior to dehydration.

Adding the smoked salt to the top of the still moist slices, prior to dehydration, gave a bit more of a smoke flavor and a nice salty kick. I used low sodium soy sauce and Worcestershire in the recipe and didn't add any salt to the marinade, other than the small amount of cure #1.

Adding the fresh cracked black pepper to the still moist slices, prior to dehydration, will be done from this point forward. Great flavor and not over powering like I've had before when I added it directly to the marinade. Also, quite a bit of the pepper can be easily brushed off once the jerky cooled down, my wife really liked that aspect since she can't do a lot of spicy.

Since I didn't mop, baste, coat, slather, or even season the exterior of the roast prior to smoking it, the outside edges of the dehydrated slices were quite a bit drier than the center portion of the slices.

I'm not certain if I got a really tender eye of round (is that possible), or if the precook made the difference, but this jerky is VERY tender, much more so than what I usually get. I did slice across the grain, but I always do. The outer edges were tough and extremely dry, but the middles are very bite friendly.

The cure didn't help to retain much, if any, of the meat's natural color. When I tore a piece open, it looked like gray cooked meat, the flavor is there, but without the normal cured color.

Will I do it again? Yep! I love experimenting with all things smoker related.

For the next one, I'm contemplating a low salt wet cure in Pop's brine, and then smoking the whole thing, before slicing to marinade.... I travel all next week, so 5 days in the juice is doable! :biggrin:

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Oct 28, 2015

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Oct 28, 2015

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Oct 28, 2015

Tried something new with my jerky (All Done with pics)

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